“Well written and multi-layered, managing to be sweet, tragic and a little bit sick”
Back to Life, BBC1
“The beauty of the script and the performances – which build relationships so delicately and naturally, which modulate so deftly in and out of grief and laughter, and which turn ordinary moments into hilarity and heartbreak without you noticing how they got you there – will take your breath away. You place your trust in Haggard and Solon’s world and it holds it without strain.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian
“It is well written and multi-layered, managing to be sweet, tragic and a little bit sick. Oh, and quietly funny, which is not easily done in these circs.”
Carol Midgley, The Times
“There are no thigh-slapping laughs, but plenty of poignant smiles. If you like your sitcoms to hurt, and that’s very much the fashion this year, Back To Life promises do the job. It won’t make your ribs ache — just your heart.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
“The focus of this dense edition of Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema was disaster movies, and it was a superb run through the history of the genre – from classics such as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno to more recent blockbusters like San Andreas. Kermode is a fearsome authority and under his command this was the perfect balance of criticism, dry wit and barrage of information.”
Sarah Carson, The i
“Kermode does this kind of thing extremely well. His cinematic knowledge is vast; he successfully persuaded me last year that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. But I couldn’t agree with his conclusion last night, which was edging towards pretentiousness.”
Carol Midgley, The Times
“Mark Kermode’s Secrets Of Cinema is overstuffed with information. It’s a book squashed into a pamphlet. With so much film knowledge to squeeze in, you’d think he might resist the urge to parade his familiarity with Old Master paintings and 19th-century novels, but no; somehow, they got a look-in, too.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
Ghosts, BBC1
“The second episode of this grown-up sitcom charmed and tickled as much as the first. The script played wittily with horror tropes, slipped in a Ghostbusters reference and incorporated a clever Sixth Sense-style plot twist. With dark dramas and grim documentaries dominating the schedules elsewhere, Ghosts is a silly ray of springtime sunshine.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph
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